RollerDerbyNotes.com is a website dedicated to the game and sport of roller derby, featuring regular news updates, independent event coverage, thoughtful analysis, and insightful commentary.
We operate under the mantra that all types of roller derby should be given fair exposure. Whether it be of the multiple organizations that are fostering variations of the modern game, or of those that hold the old-school styles of derby true to their hearts, if someone out there is playing roller derby in the way they want to play it, we want to know about it and we want to share it with the world.
RollerDerbyNotes.com is owned, operated, and penned by Steven “WindyMan” Rodriguez, a sports fan/writer/graphic artist/photographer/video game enthusiast based in Los Angeles. Steven first came across roller derby when he first saw the L.A. T-Birds on television as a child some time in the late 1980s, and then fell for the game hard when he saw those same T-Birds skate in the syndicated television show Rollergames.
Since the TV show went off the air, he longed to see roller derby again, but played in a legitimate environment. Upon hearing about the L.A. Derby Dolls banked track league in 2007 offering that very thing, as well as a number of flat track leagues around the country, he promptly proceeded to lose his shit. He has been an LADD season ticket holder and/or volunteer ever since, in addition to a webcast announcer for select RDCL tournaments.
Steven has been skating recreationally for the better part of 20 years, and spent two years skating banked track with the now-defunct Sugartown Rollergirls of Oxnard, CA. Unfortunately, a chronic medical condition has put him out of skating action indefinitely.
The precursor to this website, WindyMan’s Roller Derby Notes, was created in 2011 as a response to the lack of sports-knowledge within the greater roller derby community. RollerDerbyNotes.com continues on as a supplement to the community’s knowledge pool, offering perspectives that can only come from someone well-vested in the 80-year history of roller derby and the multiple derby disciplines that exist in the modern era of the game.
Before getting into roller derby writing, Steven spent 11 years covering the video game industry, the last two of which sitting in the director’s chair at Nintendo World Report, the leading Nintendo enthusiast news and information website on the Internet.